


Part of Your World

by indecisivegaymer (orphan_account)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Little Mermaid AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-04-03 19:47:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4112785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/indecisivegaymer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What would Armin give if he got to live out of these waters? What would Armin pay to spend a day warm on the sand?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Part of Your World

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! Welcome to my Little Mermaid AU fic! I'm so excited to finally post this. I haven't written fanfiction and actually posted it in 3 years so I hope this is good.
> 
> And I've gotta thank tumblr user sughoull for being my lovely beta/co-writer (since she is helping me with some of the ideas for this fic) who is helping me out and being my awesome first fan of this work. She's the reason this is getting dusted off, rewritten, and completed! Anyways, enough rambling by me. I hope you enjoy this snk/little mermaid crossover!

“Armin! Please, I beg of you! Slow down!” The freckled merman whined with the most frustrated expression he could muster. He really hated when Armin got excited and swam much faster than he knew he was actually capable of. “You know I can’t swim as fast as you can! Gimp fin, remember?” He groaned, flipping his tail as fast as he could in order to catch up with his blue tailed friend. It was no use. There was no way he could catch up to Armin while missing half a tail...

  
“Ugh, we should seriously return to the castle anyways! Curfew is soon and if we don’t return in time, Erwin will definitely punish us…” A small yelp escaped his throat and his hands jerked up to his chin. His eyes were wide with fear. “OR worse…Erwin might actually turn us over to Levi for punishment! Armin! Have you seen what Levi is capable of? I have and it’s not pretty! I don’t want that to happen to either of us! Armin, are you even listening? Please, let’s just go back and forget seeing Connie ever again.”

  
          Armin giggled into his hand, glancing over at his quite paranoid friend. Marco was the voice of reason amongst the two of them. And it was usually just annoying but sometimes just plain funny how irrational he could be. Please, like they would be punished by Levi over something like going to the surface. Of course, it was risky but they only visited a remote island with a population of one. It wouldn’t earn them that harsh of a punishment, there's no way...

  
“Oh, come off it, Marco. If you’ve learned anything from hanging out with me, which you’ve learned a lot about the humans, you’ve learned that it pays to live a little. Knowledge is not obtained by staying within the confines of what we are told by Erwin; it is obtained by going outside of the box and learning things for ourselves, by exploration! And adventure!” Armin practically giggled, his mouth pulled into a wide grin.

  
          Humans were a fascinating subject for Armin. They were one thing that there wasn’t much knowledge of. Of course, he knew the basic propaganda that they were dangerous and would harvest merpeople and study them and would most likely kill them if they were ever found. They also occasionally harmed merpeople with their nets, like Marco…but it was accident! They didn’t know he was there. And anyways, they are very innovative and have such amazing creations that were far more advanced than anything merpeople could ever produce. There was much to be gained by learning about them.

  
“Besides, does the excitement of learning more about the humans not overcome your fear of what punishment might befall us? Even when it is possible that the punishment may be delivered by Levi? There is so little that we actually know about them and if we aren’t going to learn about them then who is?” Armin mused. He clasped his hands together and looked towards the surface. Marco sighed deeply with his arms over his chest. What was he going to do with Armin?

  
“No, it really doesn’t. But if the humans interest you so much, I suppose I should join you. If nothing else, to make sure you stay safe.” Marco offered Armin a small smile, still shaking his head in disbelief. Armin was going to get them into some serious trouble one of these days, he just knew it.

  
          To be honest, Marco didn’t really see what was so good about humans. They captured masses of fish and for what reason? To consume them? Of course, merpeople did the same but never did they take as much as the humans did. Why did they need such a large quantity of sea life? Exactly, how many of humans were there? Those thoughts ran a shiver down his spine. He didn’t like to think about how there might be hundreds or thousands of humans on the surface. It was quite frightening concept to him.

  
“I do want to remind you, Armin. There is a reason we do not know much about them…and you know it. They do not even know about is at all. It is for our safety and for our own good that we stay as far away from them as possible. That is exactly why Erwin does not want us going to the surface all the time. He would literally flip if he knew that we were going back to see Connie again. Please remember that.”

  
“I know. We’re always careful though. Come on. We’re already pretty close to Connie anyways. A quick visit won’t do much harm, right?.” Armin was deflated a little from his friend’s concern. He knew he meant well but…he just...he had to know more about the humans. So he shook the feeling off and continued his journey to the surface. Soon, the pair broke the surface of the water, not too far off the shore of Connie’s island and not long after, they heard the voice of the man.

  
“DO MY EYES PLAY TRICKS ON ME? OR DO I SEE MY TWO FAVORITE MERMEN SWIMMING THIS WAY?!” Armin laughed at the vivacious greeting from grey bearded friend. Connie was always very excited to see Armin and Marco. They both waved and sped over to the human, pulling their torsos on the warm sand.

  
          Connie was their human friend that lived on this remote island in the middle of the ocean all by himself. He told Armin and Marco that he has live there for years now, having been shipwrecked when he was a rather young boy. They stumbled upon him on accident one day and once they determined that he was harmless, they returned frequently, bringing him human artifacts that they found as sort of a peace treaty. He found their habit to be endearing since they brought human objects to him, a human, and decided to help them figure out what they were. And now the three of them are best friends, really.

  
“Hi, Connie!” The mermen greeted with smiles, looking up at Connie as he sat down on the sand in front of them.

  
“Hey, Armin. Marco. So, what brings you two here? _Water_ you up to this evening? Getting into trouble I _sea_!” Connie winked. Armin stared up at him with a look of disbelief, looking over at Marco as he burst out laughing.

  
“Connie! Are you making ocean puns again?” Armin chuckled breathily, trying not to lose it like Marco currently was, rolling in the sand beside him. Connie just smirked in response. He was always funny and light hearted like this, making jokes.

  
“ _Fish_ , I might be. They’re just so fun and so easy to do! Anyways, what’s up? Did you guys bring me anything?” He asked excitedly.

  
          Truth be told, he really liked seeing what the mermen found at the bottom of the ocean from shipwrecks. Connie, himself, was shipwrecked long ago and was lost as sea since he was a small boy. Unfortunately, that makes it so some of the things brought to him by Armin and Marco are…not things he actually knows the names of. That’s ok though. The mermen didn’t know any better and would believe whatever he said the names of the things were. He had a fun time figuring out the items as much as they did, honestly.

  
“Of course we did, Connie! We wouldn’t bother you otherwise!” Marco beamed after he finally recovered from his laughing fit, wiping the stray tear from his cheek. Armin and Marco proceeded to pull the makeshift bags from their torsos, dumping the contents out on the sand, away from the tide.

  
“Aw, are you saying that you wouldn’t visit me unless you brought me something? Are you using me, Marco?” He asked in a playful tone. Marco shook his head. He looked a little confused and hurt.

  
“Oh no, we would never use you, Connie. We appreciate your help actually.” Connie snickered and ruffled his hair.

  
“I was just joking, Marco. Come on, let’s see what you’ve got!” Connie brushed his fingers across the piles of objects, pushing scrap pieces of metal aside and pulling strips of seaweed off the assortment of artifacts. “Hm…” He hummed in thought while plucking a circular object out of the pile. A chain came along with it. He held the item in his hand with a smile.

  
“Oh! I know what this one is! This one is a necklace. My mom wore necklaces. Humans like to decorate themselves in things like this. You wear this one around your neck, which is why it’s called a _neck_ lace. It doesn’t actually have any lace though; I’m not sure where that part came from.” He told Armin while placing it over his head and around his neck. Armin held the sort of heavy object in his hand, rubbing his finger over a knob on the side.

          All of a sudden, the metal object popped open. It took Armin aback for a moment before he looked closer. The inside was filled with water but nothing else and after dumping it, he was able to get a better look at the cylinder with bumps on it and a dozen strips of metal screwed onto a base. Armin gently prodded at it then looked to Connie with a confused look.

  
“Connie, what is this? Do all necklaces have contraptions like this?” Connie looked up from the pile he was investigating, scrambling up at the sight of it. He came closer and carefully took it from Armin. After a few moments of closer inspection, he shook his head.

  
“No. They don’t actually…Oh, this is pretty cool! I’m not entirely sure what it is but…it has this little knob...” He murmured, stroking his beard with a hand. Then he reached out and fiddled with the knob. And it twisted in his fingers. He hummed and continued to twist it until it wouldn’t anymore and let go.

  
          The three of them fell silent, except for a few gasps, when the small object began to make noise or music, rather. The cylinder spun and a soft tune began playing as the strips of metal ran across the seemingly random bumps. Armin’s eyes lit up in awe. He had never seen anything like this before.

  
“Oh…Connie…this is beautiful…but...what is it?” He asked with wonder, caressing the metal and holding it like it was the most precious thing he owned. And at this point, it probably was.

  
“It’s a….music box. It’s not shaped like a box but that’s what it’s called. My mother had one. It was bigger though.” Connie commented softly. The melody twinkling from the locket was very soothing to the three of them, relaxing them.

  
“It’s so pretty sounding…” Marco hummed. His eyes slinked down and he lay on the sand, letting the small waves run over his back. And then it suddenly stopped.

  
“You two sure do find a lot of interesting things down in the ocean.” Connie remarked, wrapping his arms around his legs, resting his chin on his knees. He was about to fall asleep, lulled by the music.

  
“I think that might have been lost by a mother. Not mine. But music boxes are used to help babies sleep. I bet a mother who sailed a lot owned that one since it's so small and portable. I don’t get how it still works after being underwater though…it must be magic or something.” He joked. He wasn’t actually serious but Armin took it that way. A magic locket, huh? He closed the locket and held it close. He felt like it was somewhat important. He didn’t know why….but it was. He just knew it.

  
“Well, I suppose we should go now, Armin. It is getting rather late.” Marco pulled himself up off the sand and dusted his chest off with a yawn. The music box made him sleepy more than anything. Not that Marco got much sleep with Armin as a best friend. For once though, Armin didn’t protest, his hands clasped tight around the locket.

  
“Yes, we should. Thank you so much, Connie. We’ll see you soon, alright?”

  
“Alright, you two. _Shell_ you later! I hope I _sea_ you soon. _Cod_ bless you. I wouldn’t want either of you to _krill_ over before I see you again!”

  
“ _Connie!_ ” The human man laughed at his terrible string of puns. He couldn't help it! They were so easy and thoe mermen thought they were so funny and awful at the same time. Connie was barely able to watch the brown and blue fins disappear under the surface of the water after they waved him off from laughing so hard. Those mermen...what was he going to do with them?

**Author's Note:**

> Leave me a kudos or comment to show your support! The more support I get, the more motivation I have, and the faster I churn out new chapters! ^-^
> 
> Also, the music played by the music box is 'Reluctant Heroes' music box version. It's rather lovely, I recommend checking it out.


End file.
